The BrickPit

Today I went to Olympic Park at Homebush to visit my sister during her lunch break and take a wander around to the old BrickPit.

Sydney Olympic Park is part of the old Homebush and for over a century sandstone and shale were quarried and clay was removed from the BrickPit as a source for Sydney's buildings and made 3000 million bricks. The sandstone and shale are 200 million years old :-)

The BrickPit is now a frog reserve with a circular boardwalk (Ring Walk) to give visitors a birds eye view. It was going to be removed and made into the tennis courts of the Olympic Games but the green and golden bell frogs which are an endangered species were found in the BrickPit so it got to stay!

After the Olympic Games in 2000, the brickpit was changed to help the frogs live and reproduce. Several freshwater ponds and rock shelters were also built, plus grasses and reeds were planted to provide extra habitats for the frogs.There are now 700+ bell frogs living in the brickpit.

The Ring Walk is twenty metres above the pit and takes 10 minutes to walk the full circle. Along the edges are colourful grates and glass windows to give visitors a wider view of the area below. Around the Ring are a few interactive devices to provide more information on the history of the pit and how it is now used as a wildlife refuge, water recycling and revegetation.

There are often people walking the ring during their lunch break and today was a beautiful day for it.

In this picture you can see the colourful Ring walk, the algae pond below (also home to ducks) and the BrickPit's sandstone and shale rock.

Visiting these places sings to my nerdy heart strings. So much fun!!!

Thank you for all of the lovely comments and stars for my baking blip yesterday :-)

Stacy xx